06 LC 21
8608
House
Resolution 1889
By:
Representative Jenkins of the
8th
A
RESOLUTION
Honoring
the memory of Micajah Clark Dyer, self-taught inventor of the North Georgia
mountains; and for other purposes.
WHEREAS,
on a day in the 1880s at least 15 years before the Wright Brothers' famous
flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Micajah Clark Dyer rode his "apparatus for
navigating the air" — the term airplane would not be coined for decades
— down a slip on Rattlesnake Mountain in Union County, Georgia, and flew
low over a meadow on his farm in the Choestoe community near Blairsville;
and
WHEREAS,
Mr. Dyer, who was born in South Carolina on July 23, 1822, and who farmed in
Union County, Georgia, to support his large family, received his only formal
education in a one room school, but despite this limitation developed a
reputation as a true genius because of his many inventions; and
WHEREAS,
most of Mr. Dyer's inventions have been lost in the veil of time, but it is
known that he equipped his house with running water, built an efficient
water-powered grist mill, and invented a "perpetual motion" machine that could
power devices, but his most famous invention was his flying machine, for which
he was awarded a patent in September, 1874, and which he continued to improve
and refine until his death on January 26, 1891; and
WHEREAS,
stories of his flying machine were kept alive through Dyer family oral tradition
until 2004, when, thanks to the modern invention of the Internet, family members
were able to identify the 1874 patent and obtain a copy, proof that the machine
had, in fact, been built and that sophisticated plans had been filed with the
United States patent office, although the flight from Rattlesnake Mountain over
the meadow remains unverified local lore; and
WHEREAS,
although the flying machine invented in the remote North Georgia mountains never
made it into the history books, family history indicates that Mr. Dyer's widow,
Morena Owenby Dyer, sold the machine and plans to the Redwine Brothers in
Atlanta, who, in turn, sold them to the Wright Brothers of Ohio, so it is
probable that Micajah Clark Dyer did, indirectly, contribute to the first human
flight.
NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that the members of
this body honor the memory of Micajah Clark Dyer, self-taught inventor and
contributor to successful flight.
BE
IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Clerk of the House of Representatives is authorized
and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to the family of
Micajah Clark Dyer.